Half of American Children Receive Food Stamps

Action Points

Note that nearly half of American children live in homes that at some point receive food stamps.

Note that the current recession will likely further impoverish and destabilize food supplies for American children.

Many American children live in households that receive food stamps, an indicator of the kind of poverty and food insecurity that can seriously jeopardize a child's overall health, a new study found.

Nearly half (49.2%) of American children will, at some point between the ages of 1 and 20, reside in a house that receives food stamps, according to a report in the Nov. 2 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

More than a quarter of American children (26.1%) will receive food stamps by the age of 5, the study found.

"Such children are by definition experiencing poverty and are also quite likely to encounter food insecurity as well," Mark R. Rank, PhD, of Washington University, and Thomas A. Hirschl, PhD, of Cornell University, wrote.

"The consequence is that children in such households frequently face dietary and nutritional problems, along with a variety of challenges and stressors that accompany poverty."

Previous research has repeatedly shown that a lack of food during childhood is linked to iron deficiency, undernutrition, and lack of dietary balance, and that poor children are more likely to suffer a range of health problems, including low birth weight, lead poisoning, delayed immunization, dental problems, and accidental death.

Adults who grew up in poverty are more likely to have impaired physical and mental growth, lower academic achievement, and to remain impoverished.

The U.S. Food Stamp program is designed to provide households with gross incomes of up to 130 percent of the poverty line with coupons or electronic credits good for the purchase of basic foodstuffs. Currently, a household of four with a gross income of up to $2,389 per month may qualify, but eligibility varies based on household size, expenses, disabilities, and other factors.

Rank and Hirschl analyzed 30 years of longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which began in 1968 with 18,000 individuals.

The PSID study conducted household interviews annually between 1968 and 1997, collecting demographic data and other information regarding children ages 1 through 20, including whether families had received food stamps during the prior year.

The researchers found that the proportion of U.S. children who received food stamps was 12.1% at age 1 year, 26.1% by age 5, 35.9% by age 10, 43.6% by age 15, and 49.2% by age 20.

Most households that received food stamps did so several times. However, families typically only use food stamps for short periods, and only 19% of American children will live in a household that uses food stamps for three or more consecutive years.

The study also found that race, parental education, and head-of-household's marital status played a strong role in determining the proportion of children residing in a food stamp household.

Among white children who lived in a home where the head of the household was married and had 12 or more years of education, 20% received food stamps by age 20. In contrast, among black children with unmarried heads-of-household who had less than 12 years of education, 97% received food stamps.

The researchers noted that the sample size did not allow for any racial comparisons to be made beyond those of black and white participants, and that the PSID is not representative of the U.S. immigrant population.

They also cautioned that their measure of food stamp use only accounted for whether a family had used food stamps in the previous year, not for how many months they'd received food stamps.

In an accompanying editorial, Paul H. Wise, MD, MPH, of Stanford University, wrote that the results of the new study are alarming, given the current economic climate and the worsening inability of the government to meet the needs of impoverished children.

"The bottom line is that the current recession is likely to generate for children in the U.S. the greatest level of material deprivation that we will see in our professional lifetimes," he wrote.

"The recession is harming children by both reducing the earning power of their parents and the capacity of the safety net to respond. However, it is also essential to recognize that children have been made extremely vulnerable to this recession by a decades-long deterioration in their social position."

In response, he wrote, the pediatric community will have to determine how to address the enhanced needs of patients, strengthen its capability to take collective action, and strive to influence policy decisions that impact the health of impoverished children.

"Pediatricians should also seek out new and better ways to support their colleagues working in communities hit hardest by the recession," he wrote.

"There can be no meaningful excuse for allowing clinicians caring for the neediest patients to struggle in isolation. This will demand greater regional responses in which private practices, hospitals, academic departments, public clinics, and community agencies come together to plan, coordinate, and ultimately provide adequate local services."

The study was funded by Northwestern University and the University of Chicago.

Accessibility Statement

At MedPage Today, we are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities can access all of the content offered by MedPage Today through our website and other properties. If you are having trouble accessing www.medpagetoday.com, MedPageToday's mobile apps, please email legal@ziffdavis.com for assistance. Please put "ADA Inquiry" in the subject line of your email.